Tampa, Fla. — And so once again, sports offer us a window into humanity, this time in that "men are from Mars; women are from Venus" sort of way.

What a day. What a week, really. Women's basketball has suddenly become an arena into hiring practices and social change, the perceptions of women and men, newly emerging voices and the gentle reminder that with enlightenment and celebrity comes deep responsibility.

In the same week, Muffet McGraw, the women's coach at Notre Dame, has caught every pass, but hasn't necessarily kept both feet in bounds. She has been inspiring, delivering an impassioned oration Thursday at the Final Four about inadequacies women face in the professional world. She has also been uncivil, calling counterpart Geno Auriemma a "bully" in an ESPNW story.

Bravo, Muffet, for finding your voice.

Just be careful how you use it.

We begin Thursday at Amalie Arena, site of Friday's Notre Dame/UConn national semifinal. McGraw had already gone on record in a recent published report saying she would never hire another man on her staff, believing women need the opportunities instead. She was asked a question about it at Thursday's formal press conference.

This is her 438-word answer:

"Did you know that the Equal Rights Amendment was introduced in 1967 and it still hasn't passed? We need 38 states to agree that discrimination on the basis of sex is unconstitutional. We've had a record number of women running for office and winning, and still we have 23 percent of the House and 25 percent of the Senate.

"I'm getting tired of the novelty of the 'first female governor of this state,' the 'first female African American mayor of this city.' When is it going to become the norm instead of the exception? How are these young women looking up and seeing someone that looks like them, preparing them for the future? We don't have enough female role models. We don't have enough visible women leaders. We don't have enough women in power.

"Girls are socialized to know when they come out, gender rules are already set. Men run the world. Men have the power. Men make the decisions. It's always the man that is the stronger one.

"When these girls are coming out, who are they looking up to? To tell them that's not the way it has to be. Where better to do that than in sports? All these millions of girls that play sports across the country, we're teaching them great things about life skills, but wouldn't it be great if we could teach them to watch how women lead? This is a path for you to take to get to the point where in this country we have 50 percent of women in power, we have right now less than five percent of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.

"When you look at men's basketball, 99 percent of the jobs go to men, why shouldn't 100 or 99 percent  of the jobs in women's basketball go to women? Maybe it's because we only have 10 percent women athletic directors in Division I. People hire people who look like them. That's the problem.

"Enough. I think women across the country in the last few years have just said enough. Time's up. Time's up. It is our turn. If it's going to happen, we have to do something about it. You see women marching in record numbers across the country. Women are coming out and being more active politically.

"I've never watched CNN as much in the past two years as I am now. We have the Equal Pay Act. Women are making 77 cents on the dollar. That's just white women. Women of color are lagging way further behind. I'm not talking about white women being coaches. We need more diversity in our game, as well."

Beautiful.

Beautiful in word, delivery and metaphorical richness.

Except there was another Muffet talking before she got to Tampa.

She was part of a lengthy feature in ESPNW, part of which addressed her relationship, or lack thereof, with Auriemma, with whom she's lobbed a few snowballs before.

"I just think he likes to have somebody to bully," McGraw said. "It was Pat (Summitt) for a while. I don't back down from him. And he is always right. That's what he does. He's part of the old boys' network that is pretty strong. They get away with more from the officials, they can say things to the players that they would never take from a female coach. That's just the way it is."

Auriemma fired back Thursday.

"I think if I was that type (of person)," he said, "I think it would have come up a lot sooner than now. We have a lot of administrators in this room. We have a lot of people that I've been associated with in the league, whether it was the Big East or the AAC, USA Basketball, any other place that I've coached, people that I've been involved with.

"I would challenge anybody anywhere in America to dig up somebody that says, 'Coach Auriemma bullied me.' I dare you. Bring it up and tell me their name."

Are we learning anything here? Maybe this: The pulpit is a blessing and a curse.

The words of former Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Rebecca Lobo:

"Do I think (Auriemma) bullies anybody? No. I thought that was an incendiary word," Lobo said. "I played for him. Been around him and I've covered him for a long time. I would never in a million years use the word bully to describe how he deals with his players, other people's players, other coaches or the officials. Ever.

"And to the bigger argument of men coaching women, I can't think of a person who's had a bigger positive impact on women and girls than coach Auriemma. I'm not talking just about the women who have played for him. I'm talking about the fans that watch women's basketball that wouldn't have except for what he's done in Connecticut. I'm talking about the boys and the men who come to the UConn games and see all these extraordinary women doing what they're doing.

"I think that changes their perception of women and girls and their relationships with women because they watch what his women are doing on the court. This is where I can get defensive about it. I think he's done more for women than any male or female I have encountered in sports. He's done it the right way, treating them like human beings and challenging them to be the best versions of themselves. He never thinks not to challenge them because they're women. He challenges them because they're human beings — and maybe because they're women they're going to have to overcome things other people don't. He prepares them for that. And never in a bullying way. In a challenging way? Yes. Were there times when I went back to my room and cried? Yes. That was because I didn't know how to handle it yet not because he wasn't handing it the right way.

"If Muffet wants to only hire women, great. Give women opportunities? I'm all for that. Geno only hires women, too. He's giving them opportunities. But I do think we have to be careful of our language. I don't want people seeing people in women's basketball male bashing. We're not. Please, men: watch these women play. Sure, it can be hard. You get the idiots on social media with 'stay in the kitchen' and that nonsense. We're never going to get that guy (to watch). But let's welcome all the others who are enlightened enough to see the beauty in all this."

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro

POSTCARD FROM THE FINAL FOUR

Greetings from Tampa! (Or "Tamper," as Jim Calhoun kept calling it at the 1999 Men's Final Four). I've already learned a valuable lesson down here in sunny Florida this week: Be careful when criticizing others, because you never known when you'll be subject to your own bout of idiocy.

Example: I was authoring a magnificent rant about how the media, in general, has more dopes per capita than any other profession. There are many examples, not the least of which is how some of the questions that get asked of coaches during formal press conferences range from ill-timed to inane to inappropriate.

During the same soliloquy about moronic media members, I wondered aloud (loudly) about where outside this this gigantic hotel we could catch the media shuttle to the arena. I may have whined about how there wasn't enough signage and perhaps said a few of George Carlin's Seven Words You Can't Say On TV.

This is where my friend Natalia Ciccone, the assistant commissioner/communications of the Pac-12 (and member of the media relations gang here in Tampa) grinned and said, "You can probably catch the shuttle right there, where that sign says, 'NCAA Transportation.'"

The sign was about two feet away from me at the time.

And then I added another media member — moi — to the whole dopes' per capita thing.

Sigh.

— Mike DiMauro